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The Gospel as Apologetic
Dr. Neil Shenvi
Faith Ascent
June 27-28, 2019
The central message of Christianity
as evidence of its truth
Biography
Outline
• Motivation
• Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
• Christianity makes unique claims about sin
and salvation
• Christianity’s claims and sin are true
• Christianity claims about salvation are true
• Conclusions
Why do we need the Argument
from the Gospel?
• The problem of justification
• Existential weight
• Evangelistic simplicity
How do we bridge the gap between
available evidence and faith?
Available resources Real-life
How do we withstand dark
nights of the soul?
How do we incorporate
apologetics into evangelism?
The Argument from the Gospel
1. Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
2. Christianity makes unique claims about sin and
salvation
3. Christianity’s claims about sin are true
4. Christianity claims about salvation are true
Therefore, Christianity is uniquely true
Unique truths = unique religion
Outline
• Motivation
• Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
• Christianity makes unique claims about sin
and salvation
• Christianity’s claims and sin are true
• Christianity claims about salvation are true
• Conclusions
Comparative religion and
religious hatred
Comparative religion and
religious hatred
• Religious differences do not necessarily
imply superiority or inferiority
• Some religious differences are matters of
empirical fact
• The uniqueness of Christianity does not
necessarily imply the truth of Christianity
The uniqueness of the gospel
• Christianity on sin and rescue
– Catholicism
– Eastern Orthodoxy
– Protestantism
• Other major religions on sin and rescue
– Buddhism
– Hinduism
– Islam
– Judaism
Catholicism on sin and rescue
• 386 Sin is “humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him.”
• 403 “the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their
inclination towards evil and death” is based on “a sin with
which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the ‘death of the
soul’”
• 430 “Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus
his eternal Son made man, ‘will save his people from their
sins.’”
• 457 “The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by
reconciling us with God, who ‘loved us and sent his Son to be
the expiation for our sins’”1
1Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano
Orthodoxy on sin and rescue
• “God has made man, and willed that he should abide in
incorruption; but men, having despised and rejected the
contemplation of God, and devised and contrived evil for
themselves … received the condemnation of death … [they
were] corrupted according to their devices; and death had
the mastery over them as king.”
• “seeing the race of rational creatures in the way to perish,
and death reigning over them by corruption [Jesus] gave
[his body] over to death in the stead of all” and that Jesus
sacrificed himself because “no otherwise could the
corruption of men be undone save by death as a necessary
condition.”1
1Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word, Chapters 8-9.
Protestantism on sin and rescue
• “Q. Can you live up to [God’s law] perfectly?
A. No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my
neighbor.”1
• Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s law and then “underwent the
punishment due to us, which we should have borne and
suffered, being made sin and a curse for us” so that “by his
perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself … [He] hath
fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation,
and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of
heaven.”2
1 Heidelberg Catechism, Question 5.2 LBC 1689, Chapter 8
Buddhism on sin and rescue
• The Four Noble truths identify not sin, but suffering as our
fundamental problem
• The goal of Buddhism is the attainment of nirvana, a state
of eternal bliss and liberation from desire
• Buddha taught that “the way to overcome self-seeking is
through the Eightfold Path [which is] a course of
treatment… It is not treatment by pills, or rituals, or grace
[but] by training.”1
• Mahayana Buddhism includes a concept of ‘savior’ but the
salvation is from suffering, not sin
1Smith, H. The World’s Religions, Harper Collins, New York, 1991, p. 104.
Hinduism on sin and rescue
• Hinduism identifies our fundamental problem as samsara,
the cycle of reincarnation
• The goal is moksha, liberation from reincarnation, which
can be achieved through following the way of knowledge,
the way of works, or the way of devotion
• The way of devotion shares some similarities with the
Christian conception of grace, but the gift sought is not
necessarily forgiveness or reconciliation. Moreover, it is
only one way among many.
Islam on sin and rescue
• Islam recognizes that sin is an offense against God, but
denies that we are innately or radically sinful and that we
need a Savior
• “Sin is not a state of being; it is the result of an act of
disobedience, failure to do or not to do what God
commands or prohibits. Human beings are not sinful by
nature.”1
• Muslim Suzanne Haneef writes “there is no need for a
Savior, and in any case God Most High alone can save.”2
1Esposito, J.L. Islam: The Straight Path, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988, p. 27
2Haneef, S. What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims, 11th ed., Kazi Publications, Inc., Chicago, 1993, p. 182
Judaism on sin and rescue
• Modern Judaism grew out of rabbinic Judaism, which
emerged after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD
• “Judaism teaches that human beings are not basically
sinful. We come into the world neither carrying the burden
of sin committed by our ancestors nor tainted by it.”1
• “Through devoted obedience to the prescriptions of Torah
[God’s law] and its rabbinic elaborations, Judaism has
taught that one might lead a life of divinely guided sanctity
and ascend along just this path to religious perfection and
communion with God.”2
1Hammer, R. Entering the High Holy Days, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2005, p. 30.
2Fishbane, Michael A. Judaism, Harper and Row, San Franciso, 1987, p. 15-16.
The uniqueness of Christianity
Prof. Stephen Prothero’s classification of
world religions:
Religion The problem is… The solution is…
Buddhism Suffering Awakening
Hinduism Samsara (“wandering”) Moksha (“release”)
Islam Pride Submission
Judaism Exile Return to God
Christianity Sin Salvation
The uniqueness of Christianity
“[W]hile it may seem to be an act of
generosity to state that Confucians and
Buddhists and Muslims and Jews can also be
saved, this statement is actually an act of
obfuscation. Only Christians seek salvation…
[J]ust as hitting home runs is the monopoly of
one sport, salvation is the monopoly of one
religion. If you see sin as the human
predicament and salvation as the solution,
then it makes sense to come to Christ.”1
1Prothero, S. God is Not One, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2012, p. 22-23.
Outline
• Motivation
• Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
• Christianity makes unique claims about sin
and salvation
• Christianity’s claims and sin are true
• Christianity claims about salvation are true
• Conclusions
The Bible on sin
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every
intention of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually." - Gen. 6:5
"Against you, you only, have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight... Behold, I
was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin
did my mother conceive me."
- Psalm 51:4-5
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God. All
have turned aside; together they have
become worthless; no one does good, not
even one." - Rom. 3:10-12
The Bible on sinTHIS IS A DIFFICULT DECISION. IN TIMES LIKE THIS YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO TRUST YOUR HEART. TRUST YOUR HEART, SWEETIE.
OK HEART, WHAT’S IT GONNA BE.
The depth and ubiquity of evil
“In the majority of massacres there is evidence of multiple acts of savagery, which preceded, accompanies or occurred after the deaths of victims. Acts such as killing defenseless children, often by beating them against walls or throwing them alive into pits where the corpses of adults were later thrown; the amputation of limbs; the impaling of victims; the killing of persons by covering them in petrol and burning them alive; the extraction, in the presence of others, of the viscera of the victims who were still alive… the opening of wombs of pregnant women, and other similarly atrocious acts.” – The Commission on Historical Clarification, describing Guatemalan atrocities against the Mayans
Naimark, N.M., Genocide: A World History Oxford University Press, New
York, 2017, p. 109
The depth and ubiquity of evil
Pinker, S. The Blank Slate, Penguin, New York, 2002, p. 57
The depth and ubiquity of evil
• “the psychological toll of this work is immense. A lot of the job involves taking
down pornography, of course, but a lot of it is taking down hateful, sadistic, and
terrifying stuff. (There's also a lot of overlap.) ‘The worst was the gore: brutal street
fights, animal torture, suicide bombings, decapitations, and horrific traffic
accidents,’… One woman in particular is ‘especially haunted’ by a video she took
down, about half an hour long, that appeared to be of a [CENSORED] Seeing that
just once would be hard to get over, but having to deal with that stuff daily seems
impossible to fathom.”
• “The army of content moderators is huge, ‘well over 100,000,’”
Milgram experiments
• Yale professor Stanley Millgram recruited
‘teachers’ to subject ‘learners’ to electric
shocks
• Under the supervision of a ‘scientist’ 65%
of the ‘teachers’ were willing to administer
lethal voltages to the ‘learners’
• A 2006 experiment replicated the results
Burger, J. M. American Psychologist. Vol. 64, No. 1, p. 1–11.
The radical nature of sin
“You have heard that it was said to those of old,
‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders
will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother will be
liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother
will be liable to the council; and whoever says,
‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” –
Matt. 5:21-22
Outline
• Motivation
• Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
• Christianity makes unique claims about sin
and salvation
• Christianity’s claims and sin are true
• Christianity claims about salvation are true
• Conclusions
The Bible on rescue
"God shows his love for us in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -
Rom. 5:8
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ—by
grace you have been saved” - Eph. 2:4-5
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost.”- Luke 19:10
Sin as transgression
• “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord
your God or be careful to do all his
commandments and his statutes that I command
you today, then all these curses shall come upon
you and overtake you…The Lord will send on you
curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you
undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish
quickly on account of the evil of your deeds,
because you have forsaken me.” – Deut. 28:15-20
• “[God] will render to each one according to his
works…For all who have sinned without the law
will also perish without the law, and all who have
sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not the hearers of the law who are
righteous before God, but the doers of the law
who will be justified.” – Rom. 2:6-13
Sin as transgression
Sin as slavery
• “Do you not know that if you present
yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin, which leads to death, or of
obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
- Romans. 6:16
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who
practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave
does not remain in the house forever; the
son remains forever. So if the Son sets you
free, you will be free indeed” - John 8:34-
36
Sin as slavery
Outline
• Motivation
• Unique truths = Uniquely true religion
• Christianity makes unique claims about sin
and salvation
• Christianity’s claims and sin are true
• Christianity claims about salvation are true
• Conclusions
The offense of the gospel
The centrality of the gospel
The sufficiency of the gospel
Why do we need the Argument
from the Gospel?
• The problem of justification
• Existential weight
• Evangelistic simplicity
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